Our trip to the McKinney M.R.F. (Materials Recovery Facility) was long. As Quinn and I drove from Colleyville to McKinney, Texas all I could think about was that this is the same trip our recyclables have to make every day or so. Is this helping to reduce our carbon foot print? I guess we will find out. Quinn and I pull up to another unassuming building and go inside to meet with Henry Leu. Henry is the Operations Manager for the IESI McKinney MRF. We are greeted by a wonderful lady at the front desk and she fills us in on what we are about to see. The MRF is actually in a building in the back of the property that was completed about one year ago. She shares that it was the first LEEDS Certified recycling center in the United States. LEEDS Certification was developed by the US Green Building Council in 2000, LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. You can learn more about LEED Certification at www.usgbc.org/LEED/ . Henry arrives and we follow him to the new MRF building. The new building is visually impressive compared to all of the other facilities we have visited. It is modern, clean, hip and trendy while still looking like a functional warehouse. The inside has the same feel. The carpeting is made out of recycled plastic bottles and the walls are made from recycled cardboard. Overall the building is made from 35% recycled material. Now that is a way to walk the talk.
Mc Kinney LEEDS Certified MRF
We are led to the community room on the second floor where all the tours begin. We are treated to a very informative video about the MRF building and the work that goes on inside. Quinn really liked the observation deck where you can get a great view of what goes on. The McKinney MRF services McKinney, Melissa, Frisco, Prosper, Rowlette and Colleyville.
- 6,495 tons of materials a month
- 77,940 tons a year
These materials include plastic, paper, aluminum, tin, steel and cardboard. Once our recycling makes it to the floor of the MRF it is pushed onto a conveyor belt to be sorted. Once on the belt it goes to a platform where employees hand sift out any items that are not recyclable. Then it continues and large cardboard is sent out to its own pile. Then the materials are diverted to a vibrating conveyor belt that sorts out paper. The journey continues with plastic being separated and at the end a large magnet helps sort the tin, aluminum and metal. It is hard to believe that only a year ago this whole process was done by hand. I love modern technology. The one unfortunate fact we realized during our visit was that all glass is not so fortunate. Henry currently does not have the ability to recycle all glass. What? I was amazed. I thought glass was the easiest substance to recycle, not true. The McKinney MRF is currently only able to recycle large pieces of glass.
- Large Glass is Happy Glass
Small pieces of glass are hazardous to the MRF employees and currently can not be cleaned economically. The good news is that a new $100,000.00 machine is being purchased and will clean broken glass using vibration and high pressured air. This high-tech machine should arrive in about 6 months. This brought up a very good question. How much material arrives at the recycling facility that can not be recycled? One percent is sent to the Melissa landfill because it has no end use and is truly trash. That is a lower number then I expected. There are several materials that frequently make it the center that are not recyclable:
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Grocery Bags
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Dirty aluminum Foil
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Greasy Cardboard Pizza Boxes
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Coolers
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Inflatable Toys and Pools
- Pile of not-so recyclable items.
So what happens to all of these sorted materials? We continue our tour outside. Quinn is amazed by the mounds of material that has been dumped on the MRF floor. The mound is huge and Quinn gets good footage:
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equals enough energy to run a television nonstop for 154 years
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saves more than 42,000 gallons of gasoline
More than 62,290,000 pounds of paper that saves:
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300,00 trees
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6,400,000 gallons of oil
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52,000 kilowatts of energy
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122,000,000 gallons of water
More than 6,718,000 pounds of plastic that:
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saves 3,400,000 gallons of oil
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is equivalent to 6,718 people’s energy for one year
More than 31,784,000 pounds of cardboard that saves:
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85,000 cubic yards of landfill space
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436,000 gallons of oil
This material is sold via broker for market value. The numbers are quite impressive but, a little hard to imagine. So when we turn the corner and see the bails of paper we are really shocked.
Quinn asks” How long did it take for you to take in this much paper?” and Henry replies” A couple of days” That really puts it right into perspective for Quinn and I. The bails of plastic are next, followed by aluminum. So we have the answer to todays question: Does the plastic bottle we put in or recycling bin really get recycled? Answer: Absolutely! We thank Henry for a great tour. He tells Quinn he can keep the hard hat! Quinn is pleased. We get into the car to start our journey home. As we discuss our afternoon Quinn is energetic about the possibilities of recycling. I ask him if the long trip was worth it? His reply? “Totally, but how long til we get home?” I giggle and come to the realization that the trip was definitely worth it for us and especially for our recycling. Follow us next week as we revisit Quinn’s favorite landfill – The Denton Landfill with Txa 21 and CBS11 in tow as they interview him about his adventure.
This material is sold at market value via a broker
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